Oregon baseball: Eddie Rodriguez starring as 'quarterback' as Ducks prepare for Arizona State

Norm Maves Jr./Special to The OregonianEddie Rodriguez, healed from injury and hot at the plate, is among the Ducks' biggest contributors so far this season.EUGENE - These are the best days of Eddie Rodriguez's life by just about any measure.

The University of Oregon senior can get down into his catcher's crouch pain free and stay there nearly all day. The line drives are jumping off his bat at a .405 clip, including .468 in his past 19 games. And the limitations of his small-town upbringing in Central Washington are in his rearview mirror.

He's in control of his own future now, and the constant smile on his face shows it.

"I just wanted to play so badly," Rodriguez said this week, recalling the frustrations of dealing with a sprained knee last season, "that I was in a depressed mood all year. ... I'm just so happy to be back. I can't wait to get behind the plate."

He just can't wait for this weekend, either. The Ducks (18-8, 1-2 Pacific-10 Conference), fresh off a dramatic win Sunday at Arizona, open a three-game homestand at PK Park on Thursday against No. 2 Arizona State (23-0, 3-0).

Ducks coach George Horton likes his catcher to be his quarterback, and that role will most certainly be needed against the dangerous Sun Devils.

Horton likes Rodriguez's progress there after taking a roundabout route to the Pacific-10 Conference. He spent two sizzling years at Wenatchee Valley Community College, and was good enough to join the Ducks last year.

"Eddie's done some subtle things, even recently, to improve there," Horton said. "He goes out to the mound to get the pitcher at the right times and is improving in all those intangible areas. I think because he's healthy, his blocking range is better. He's not in the training room all the time, and he can be in the bullpen catching the guys more often.

"All those things add up."

It's been a long limp to this point from where Rodriguez was on March 14, 2009, when he tagged up at third base on a fly ball against Nevada.

"The ball was at home plate 10 feet before I was," he said. "I tried to avoid the tag, so I juked to my left. And as I tried coming around to sweep the plate with my hand, my left cleat caught in the turf. My right knee went straight into the ground."

The injury, listed as a sprain, was technically a partial tear in the posterior collateral ligament. A day after the injury, Rodriguez couldn't straighten the leg.

The sprain wasn't bad enough to keep him out for the rest of the season, but it ruined it nonetheless. Unable to push off with his back leg, he hit off his front foot, managing a meager 22 hits in just 99 at-bats. Unable to catch, he played first base and designated hitter.

Soon, it all got to him. The first to notice was his roommate, pitcher Justin LaTempa.

"After that Reno game when he got hurt, LaTempa said, "he was really down. It took him awhile to get back to his normal, bubbly self. Even when he was back, he couldn't do the things he normally does."

After the season, Rodriguez jumped into rehabilitation full force, six days a week while taking summer classes.

"I was about 90 percent toward the end of the baseball season," Rodriguez said, "and I wanted to get to 100 percent."

Part of what drove him was a determination not to go back to Warden, Wash., without finishing what he started in Eugene.

Back in 2006, scouts used to come to tiny Warden to watch the Cougars. But they hardly noticed Rodriguez. Instead, they came to see his cousin and the other end of the Cougar battery -- pitcher Jorge Reyes.

Reyes, of course, went on to Oregon State and won two games in the College World Series as a freshman and was the Most Outstanding Player of the Beavers' 2007 national championship team.

Watching his cousin's success on television back in Washington left Rodriguez hungry.

"What he did," Rodriguez said, "built a spark in me. It made me think that people from small towns can do big things."

The cousins had parallel athletic careers, both also wrestling and playing football.

"Edward was quite an athlete..." said Jerry Powell, who coached both. "In a school our size, it's hard to get recognized. We're tickled to death for a player to play in college -- I couldn't have dreamed for DI for two of them.

"Edward was always very competitive. He was a great team leader. And the way he hit for me, I'm not surprised at what he's doing now."